安徒生童話:the DREAM OF LITTLE TUK小杜克
![安徒生童話:the DREAM OF LITTLE TUK小杜克 安徒生童話:the DREAM OF LITTLE TUK小杜克](https://i1.yyxkb.com/131b9ea15ce070/5646d6/131a89b451/5646d6f207b73a.jpg)
the DREAM OF LITTLE TUK
Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for Charles,and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now to take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than himself, and he was,besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but these two things would not do together at all. There sat the poor little fellow, with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her all the songs he knew; and he glanced the while from time to time into the geography-book that lay open before him. By the next morning he was to have learnt all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know about them all that is possible to be known.
His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta on her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he pretty nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his mother had no money to buy a candle.
“there goes the old washerwoman over the way,” said his mother, as she looked out of the window. “The poor woman can hardly drag herself along, and she must now drag the pail home from the fountain. Be a good boy, Tukey, and run across and help the old woman, won't you?”
So Tuk ran over quickly and helped her; but when he came back again into the room it was quite dark, and as to a light, there was no thought of such a thing. He was now to go to bed; that was an old turn-up bedstead; in it he lay and thought about his geography lesson, and of Zealand, and of all that his master had told him. He ought, to be sure, to have read over his lesson again,but that, you know, he could not do. He therefore put his geography-book under his pillow, because he had heard that was a very good thing to do when one wants to learn one's lesson; but one cannot, however, rely upon it entirely. Well, there he lay, and thought and thought, and all at once it was just as if someone kissed his eyes and mouth: he slept, and yet he did not sleep; it was as though the old washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said, “It were a GREat sin if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning. You have aided me, I therefore will now help you; and the loving God will do so at all times.” And all of a sudden the book under Tuk's pillow began scraping and scratching.
“Kickery-ki! kluk! kluk! kluk!”——that was an old hen who came creeping along,and she was from Kjoge. “I am a Kjoger hen,”* said she, and then she related how many inhabitants there were there, and about the battle that had taken place, and which, after all, was hardly worth talking about.
* Kjoge, a town in the bay of Kjoge. “To see the Kjoge hens,” is an expression similar to “showing a child London,” which is said to be done by taking his head in both bands, and so lifting him off the ground. At the invasion of the English in 1807, an encounter of a no very glorious nature took place between the British troops and the undisciplined Danish militia.
“Kribledy, krabledy——plump!” down fell somebody: it was a wooden bird, the popinjay used at the shooting-matches at Prastoe. Now he said that there were just as many inhabitants as he had nails in his body; and he was very proud.“Thorwaldsen lived almost next door to me.* Plump! Here I lie capitally.”
* Prastoe, a still smaller town than Kjoge. Some hundred paces from it lies the manor-house Ny Soe, where Thorwaldsen, the famed sculptor, generally sojourned during his stay in Denmark, and where he called many of his immortal works into existence.
But little Tuk was no longer lying down: all at once he was on horseback. On he went at full gallop, still galloping on and on. A knight with a gleaming plume, and most magnificently dressed, held him before him on the horse, and thus they rode through the wood to the old town of Bordingborg, and that was a large and very lively town. High towers Rose from the castle of the king, and the brightness of many candles streamed from all the windows; within was dance and song, and King Waldemar and the young, richly-attired maids of honor danced together. The morn now came; and as soon as the sun appeared, the whole town and the king's palace crumbled together, and one tower after the other;and at last only a single one remained standing where the castle had been before,* and the town was so small and poor, and the school boys came along with their books under their arms, and said, “2000 inhabitants!” but that was not true, for there were not so many.
*Bordingborg, in the reign of King Waldemar, a considerable place, now an unimportant little town. One solitary tower only, and some remains of a wall,show where the castle once stood.
And little Tukey lay in his bed: it seemed to him as if he dreamed, and yet as if he were not dreaming; however, somebody was close beside him.
“Little Tukey! Little Tukey!” cried someone near. It was a seaman, quite a little personage, so little as if he were a midshipman; but a midshipman it was not.
“Many remembrances from Corsor.* That is a town that is just rising into importance; a lively town that has steam-boats and stagecoaches: formerly people called it ugly, but that is no longer true. I lie on the sea,” said Corsor; “I have high roads and gardens, and I have given birth to a poet who was witty and amusing, which all poets are not. I once intended to equip a ship that was to sail all round the earth; but I did not do it, although I could have done so: and then, too, I smell so deliciously, for close before the gate bloom the most beautiful roses.”
*Corsor, on the GREat Belt, called, formerly, before the introduction of steam-vessels, when travellers were often obliged to wait a long time for a favorable wind, “the most tiresome of towns.” The poet Baggesen was born here.
Little Tuk looked, and all was red and GREen before his eyes; but as soon as the confusion of colors was somewhat over, all of a sudden there appeared a wooded slope close to the bay, and high up above stood a magnificent old church, with two high pointed towers. From out the hill-side spouted fountains in thick streams of water, so that there was a continual splashing; and close beside them sat an old king with a golden crown upon his white head: that was King Hroar, near the fountains, close to the town of Roeskilde, as it is now called. And up the slope into the old church went all the kings and queens of Denmark, hand in hand, all with their golden crowns; and the organ played and the fountains rustled. Little Tuk saw all, heard all. “Do not forget the diet,” said King Hroar.*
*Roeskilde, once the capital of Denmark. The town takes its name from King Hroar, and the many fountains in the neighborhood. In the beautiful cathedral the GREater number of the kings and queens of Denmark are interred. In Roeskilde, too, the members of the Danish Diet assemble.
Again all suddenly disappeared. Yes, and whither? It seemed to him just as if one turned over a leaf in a book. And now stood there an old peasant-woman,who came from Soroe,* where grass grows in the market-place. She had an old GREy linen apron hanging over her head and back: it was so wet, it certainly must have been raining. “Yes, that it has,” said she; and she now related many pretty things out of Holberg's comedies, and about Waldemar and Absalon; but all at once she cowered together, and her head began shaking backwards and forwards, and she looked as she were going to make a spring. “Croak! croak!”said she. “It is wet, it is wet; there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in Sorbe!” She was now suddenly a frog, “Croak”; and now she was an old woman.“One must dress according to the weather,” said she. “It is wet; it is wet. My town is just like a bottle; and one gets in by the neck, and by the neck one must get out again! In former times I had the finest fish, and now I have fresh rosy-cheeked boys at the bottom of the bottle, who learn wisdom, Hebrew,Greek——Croak!”
* Sorbe, a very quiet little town, beautifully situated, surrounded by woods and lakes. Holberg, Denmark's Moliere, founded here an academy for the sons of the nobles. The poets Hauch and Ingemann were appointed professors here. The latter lives there still.
When she spoke it sounded just like the noise of frogs, or as if one walked with GREat boots over a moor; always the same tone, so uniform and so tiring that little Tuk fell into a good sound sleep, which, by the bye, could not do him any harm.
But even in this sleep there came a dream, or whatever else it was: his little sister Augusta, she with the blue eyes and the fair curling hair, was suddenly a tall, beautiful girl, and without having wings was yet able to fly; and she now flew over Zealand——over the GREen woods and the blue lakes.
“Do you hear the cock crow, Tukey? Cock-a-doodle-doo! The cocks are flying up from Kjoge! You will have a farm-yard, so large, oh! so very large! You will suffer neither hunger nor thirst! You will get on in the world! You will be a rich and happy man! Your house will exalt itself like King Waldemar's tower,and will be richly decorated with marble statues, like that at Prastoe. You understand what I mean. Your name shall circulate with renown all round the earth, like unto the ship that was to have sailed from Corsor; and in Roeskilde——”
“Do not forget the diet!” said King Hroar.
“then you will speak well and wisely, little Tukey; and when at last you sink into your grave, you shall sleep as quietly——”
“As if I lay in Soroe,” said Tuk, awaking. It was bright day, and he was now quite unable to call to mind his dream; that, however, was not at all necessary, for one may not know what the future will bring.
And out of bed he jumped, and read in his book, and now all at once he knew his whole lesson. And the old washerwoman popped her head in at the door,nodded to him friendly, and said, “Thanks, many thanks, my good child, for your help! May the good ever-loving God fulfil your loveliest dream!”
Little Tukey did not at all know what he had dreamed, but the loving God knew it.
是的,那就是小杜克。他的名字並不是真的叫杜克;不過當他還不會講話的時候,就把自己叫做杜克。他的名字應該是“加爾”——明瞭這一點是有好處的。現在他得照料比他小很多的妹妹古斯塔烏,自己還要温習功課。但是同時要做這兩件事情是不太容易的。這個可憐的孩子把小妹妹抱在膝上,對她唱些他所會唱的歌;在這同時,他還要看攤在面前的那本地理書。在明天到來以前,他必須記好西蘭①主教區所屬的一切城市的名字,知道人們應該知道的一切關於它們的事情。
①西蘭(Sjaeland)是丹麥東部的羣島。面積7514平方公里。
現在他的媽媽回來了,因為她到外面去過。她把小小的古斯塔烏抱起來。杜克跑到窗子那兒,拼命看書,幾乎把眼睛都看花了,因為天已經慢慢黑下來了;但是他的媽媽沒有錢買蠟燭。
“那個洗衣的老太婆在街上走來了,”正在朝窗子外面望的媽媽説。“她連走路也走不動,但還是要從井裏取一桶水上來。做個好孩子吧,杜克,快過去幫助這個老太太一下!”
杜克立刻就跑過去幫她的忙。不過當他回到房裏來的時候,天已經很黑了。蠟燭他們是買不起的;他只得上牀去睡,而他的牀卻是一張舊板凳。他躺在那上面,想着他的地理功課:西蘭的主教區和老師所講的一切東西。他的確應該先温習好,但是他現在沒有法子做到。所以只好把地理課本放在枕頭底下,因為他聽説這可以幫助人記住課文,不過這個辦法卻不一定靠得住。
他躺在那上面,想了許多事情。忽然覺得有人吻他的眼睛和嘴。他似乎睡着了,又似乎沒有睡着。他好像覺得那個洗衣老太婆的温柔的眼睛在看他,並且對他説:
“如果你明天記不住功課,那真是可惜得很!你幫助過我,我現在應該幫助你。我們的上帝總是幫助人的!”
杜克的那本書馬上就在他的頭底下窸窸窣窣地動起來了。
“吉克——哩基!咕!咕!”這原來是一隻老母雞跑出來了——而且它是一隻卻格①的雞。“我是一隻卻格的母雞,”它説。
於是它就告訴他,那個小鎮有多少居民,那兒曾經打過一次仗——雖然這的確不值得一提②。
“克里布里,克里布里,撲!”有一件什麼東西落下來了,這是一隻木雕的雀子——一隻在佈列斯托③射鳥比賽時贏來的鸚鵡。它説那兒居民數目之多,等於它身上的釘子。它是很驕傲的。“多瓦爾生就住在我的附近。撲!我睡得真舒服!”
①卻格是丹麥卻格灣上的一個小鎮。
②1677年6月1日,丹麥的艦隊在卻格灣擊潰了瑞典的艦隊。但是法國的國王路易十四卻不準丹麥獲得任何勝利的果實。這裏所説“不值得一提”也許就是因為這個緣故。
③佈列斯托(Praesto)是丹麥的一個小鎮,它的附近有一個尼索(nyso)農莊。雕刻師多瓦爾生曾經住在這兒。
不過現在小杜克已經不是躺在牀上,他忽然騎上了一匹馬。跑!跑!跳!跳!馬兒在馳騁着。一位穿得很漂亮的騎士,戴着發亮的頭盔和修長的羽毛,把他抱在馬鞍前面坐着。他們穿過森林,來到古老的城市伏爾丁堡①——這是一個非常熱鬧的大城市。國王的宮殿上聳立着許多高塔;塔上的窗子裏射出亮光,那裏面有歌聲和跳舞。國王瓦爾得馬爾和許多漂亮的宮女們在一直跳着舞。這時天已經亮了。當太陽出來的時候,整個城市和國王的宮殿就沉下去了,那些高塔也一個接着一個地不見了。最後只有一座塔立在原來宮殿所在地的山上。這個城市顯得渺小和寒磣。小學生把書本夾在臂下走來了,説:“兩千個居民。”不過這不是真的,因為事實上並沒有這麼多人。
小杜克躺在牀上,彷彿是在做夢。又不像在做夢。不過有一個人站在他身邊。
“小杜克!小杜克!”這聲音説。這是一個水手——一個相當小的人物,小得好像一個海軍學生,不過他並不是一個海軍學生。“我特別代表柯蘇爾來向你致敬——這是一個正在發展中的城市,一個活躍的、有汽船和郵車的城市。在過去,大家都説它很醜,不過現在這話卻不對了。”
“我住在海邊,”柯蘇爾説。“我有一條公路和遊樂的公園。我產生了一個詩人②,他是非常幽默的——就一般的詩人説來,這是少有的。有一次我很想送一條船出去,周遊世界一番。不過我沒有這樣做,雖然我可以做得到。我的氣味很香,因為在我的城門附近盛開着許多最美麗的玫瑰花。”
①在國王瓦爾得馬爾時代,伏爾丁堡是丹麥一個很重要的城市。現在只剩下宮殿的廢墟。
②指柏格森(Baggesen,1764~1826)。他是安徒生所喜愛的一個詩人。
小杜克看着它;它在他眼中是紅色的和綠色的。當這種種的色彩漸漸消逝了以後,附近清亮的海灣上就出現了一個長滿樹林的斜坡。上面有一座美麗的老教堂,它頂上有兩個高高的尖塔。一股湧泉從山裏流出來,發出潺潺的聲音。一位年老的國王坐在近旁,他的長頭髮上戴着一頂金王冠。這就是“泉水旁的赫洛爾王”——也就是人們現在所謂的羅斯吉爾得鎮①。丹麥所有的國王和王后,頭上戴着金冠,都手挽着手,走到這座山上的那個古教堂裏來。於是琴樓上的風琴奏起來了,泉水也發出潺潺的鳴聲。杜克看到這些景象,也聽到這些聲音。
“請不要忘記這王國的各個省份!”國王赫洛爾説。
立刻一切東西就不見了。是的,它們又變成了什麼呢?這真像翻了一頁書似的。這兒現在有一個年老的農家婦人。“她是一個鋤草的農婦。她來自蘇洛②——這兒連市場上都長起草來了。她把灰布圍裙披在頭上和肩上。圍裙是潮濕的,一定是下過雨了。
“是的,下過了一陣雨!”她説。她知道荷爾堡的劇本中的許多有趣的片斷,也全知道關於瓦爾得馬爾和亞卜薩龍③的事情。不過她忽然蹲下來,搖着頭,好像要跳躍似的。“呱—呱!”她説。“天下雨了!天下雨了!蘇洛是像墳墓一樣地靜寂!”她現在變成了一隻青蛙——“呱—呱!”——不一會兒她又變成了一個老女人。
①赫洛爾王(Hroar)是丹麥傳説中的一個國王,大約生活在第五世紀後半期。羅斯吉爾得鎮(Rosekilde)據説就是他建立起來的。此鎮到1445年止是丹麥的首都,在這兒的禮拜堂裏葬着許多丹麥的國王和王后。
②蘇洛(Soro)是十二世紀建立起來的一個小鎮,丹麥的偉大劇作家荷爾堡在這兒創辦了有名的“蘇洛書院”。安徒生在這裏讀過書。
③亞卜薩龍(Absalon,1123~1201)是丹麥的一個將軍和政治家,曾征服過愛沙尼亞。
“一個人應該看天氣穿衣服才對!”她説。“天下雨了!天下雨了!我住的這個城市像一個瓶子。你從瓶塞那兒進去,你還得從瓶口那兒出來!從前那裏面裝着些鮎魚,現在這裏面有一些紅臉蛋的孩子。他們學到了許多學問——希伯萊文,希臘文——呱—呱!”
這很像青蛙的叫聲,或者某人穿着一雙大靴子在沼澤地上走過的聲音;老是那麼一個調子,既枯燥,又討厭,討厭得叫小杜克要酣睡了,而酣睡是再好不過的事情。
就是在這樣的睡眠中也居然會做起夢來——或者説類似做夢一般。他那個有一雙藍眼睛和金黃色鬈髮的小妹妹古斯塔烏忽然變成了一個亭亭玉立的小姐。她沒有翅膀,但是她能飛翔。現在他們一起飛到西蘭,飛過綠色的森林和蔚藍色的湖泊。
“你聽到公雞叫麼?小杜克?吉一克一哩一基!許多母雞從卻格飛出來!你可以有一個養雞場——一個很大、很大的養雞場!你將不會飢餓和貧困!像俗話所説的,你將射得鸚鵡;你將是一個富有和快樂的人!你的房子將會聳入雲霄,像國王瓦爾得馬爾的塔一樣。它將有許多美麗的大理石像——像從佈列斯托那兒搬來的一樣——作為裝飾。懂得我的意思了吧。你的名字將會像從柯蘇爾開出的船一樣,周遊世界。同時在羅斯吉爾得——請不要忘記這些城市吧!”國王赫洛爾説。 “小杜克,你將會説出聰明而有理智的話來。當你最後走進墳墓裏去的時候,你將會睡得很平安——”
“倒好像我是躺在蘇洛似的!”小杜克説,於是便醒來了。這是一個晴朗的早晨。他一點也記不起這場夢。不過這倒也沒有什麼必要,因為一個人是不需要知道未來會發生的事情的。
現在他從牀上跳下來,讀他的書;馬上他就懂得全部的功課了。那個洗衣的老太婆把頭伸進門來,對他和藹地點點頭,説:
“好孩子,謝謝你昨天的幫忙!願上帝使你的美麗的夢變成事實!”
小杜克完全不知道自己做了一場什麼夢,不過上帝知道!
(1847)
這個小故事最先發表在《新的童話》裏。安徒生的母親是一個窮苦的洗衣婦。這個小故事的某些情節來自有關她的記憶。作者在有關他的《童話全集》的手記中寫道:“這篇故事中有些情節牽涉到我兒時的記憶。”當然這裏自然也牽涉到安徒生自己,“你的名字將會像從柯蘇爾開出的船一樣,周遊世界。同時在羅斯吉爾得——請不要忘記這些城市吧!飄來國王赫洛爾的聲音,'小杜克,你將會説出聰明而有理智的話來。當你最後走進墳墓裏去的時候,你將會睡得很平安'。” 這也説明安徒生當時從事童話創作時的心情。